In short, I like it a lot when I remember to use it (which is spotty, but getting more frequent). I have it set to show on Win-Q (the default) at the location of my mouse cursor (not default). You can run commands there as if it was the command window or Start->Run, but you can also create “MagicWords” to be shortcuts to other programs (with or without parameters). For example, if I type Win-Q then “mor” (for morning), my e-mail, my RSS reader, and iTunes all open.

If you’re viewing this page in your browser (as opposed to an aggregator) you will now see Google AdSense link units in the navigation. I thought I’d try these out for a while. As you can see, they’re smaller than the regular Google ads that you might have seen on other sites. I imagine that they will pay out less than the other ads as well, but I’m not really expecting to make tons of money on this anyway.

That said, please feel free to click on any of them. I’d rather get something than nothing. 😉

Update: At the moment, I’m also trying out the regular AdSense format as well, so you will see both for now.

I bought Head First Design Patterns (“Part I” here) today. There are lots of exercises in the book, and they apparently (according to the Introduction) are a very important part of the learning process. My dilemma, though, is that I don’t know if I should write in the book, or keep notes separately. I normally don’t like writing in books, but I don’t know why.

BTW, I decided to post about “Head First” as much as possible because it makes casey “giggle“.

Update: I just saw this. It’s a C# implementation of the various source files from the Head First book provided by Mark McFadden. (Via Sean, via Darrel.)

I just noticed that three pieces of software that I often use are in version 1.1:

Visual Studio (OK, so it’s really version 7.1 of VS, but the Framework is in v1.1)

Community Server

My web mail client

I thought that was kind of interesting and it got me thinking about other “v1.1” things. The first thing that came to mind was my actual web sites — this blog site and my “other” site, ScottIsaacs.com. This blog was intended to be a minor upgrade to the functionality provided by my original site — just until version 2.0 comes out.

Another, more important one-point-one is my career. I’ve been through the 0.x pre-alpha stage, the major 1.0 release and then a minor upgrade.

Maybe I should try to upgrade my web sites and career and launch a new version in coordination with the next release of the Visual Studio…

Because so many people have asked, “Scott, what wonderful items can I buy for you?”, I am including this list of various wishlists. (I’m also going to add it to the site navigation so you can find it easier.)

He made a simple suggestion to temporarily switch to the default blog skin and see if comments would work. The comments did work! My problem stemmed from the fact that I was using a customized version of a skin that came in the 1.0x CS distribution. Based on his suggestion, when I got home I poked around for about 10 minutes and got it working. In case anyone else has a similar problem, here is my simple solution.

In the /Themes/Blogs/_Your_Theme_/Skin-EntryPostCommentContainer.ascx, add this line:

Has anyone bought and read Head First Design Patterns (or as Gerry calls it, “The Hot Blonde Patterns Book”)? I’ve been slacking off on learning more about patterns, and have recently rekindled my interest. I have Refactoring to Patterns at home, and have started to read that one, but a few people have mentioned this one to me as well.

The problem is, though, that I have focus problems when … Ooh! Look at that bird! Oh, sorry. I have a hard time reading. I understand it just fine, but I often lose interest quickly (unless I’m getting paid for it). This book (image borrowed from Amazon), though, looks like it might actually be able to hold my interest. I read a sample chapter (linked from this page) — the whole chapter — so there might be hope.

I just need someone to verify this and to vouch for its content. Aside from being easy to read, is there enough information in the book to make it worth while? Any takers? Thanks.

Update: I should have mentioned that I have the GoF book, but for me it seems more like a reference than a tutorial.